Trespass on the case

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
trespass on the case
    n 1: an action brought to recover damages from a person whose
         actions have resulted indirectly in injury or loss; "a
         person struck by a log as it was thrown onto a road could
         maintain trespass against the thrower but one who was hurt
         by stumbling over it could maintain and action on the case"
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Trespass \Tres"pass\, n. [OF. trespas, F. tr['e]pas death. See
   {Trespass}, v.]
   1. Any injury or offence done to another.
      [1913 Webster]

            I you forgive all wholly this trespass. --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

            If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will
            your Father forgive your trespasses.  --Matt. vi.
                                                  15.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Any voluntary transgression of the moral law; any
      violation of a known rule of duty; sin.
      [1913 Webster]

            The fatal trespass done by Eve.       --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            You . . . who were dead in trespasses and sins.
                                                  --Eph. if. 1.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Law)
      (a) An unlawful act committed with force and violence (vi
          et armis) on the person, property, or relative rights
          of another.
      (b) An action for injuries accompanied with force.
          [1913 Webster]

   {Trespass offering} (Jewish Antiq.), an offering in expiation
      of a trespass.

   {Trespass on the case}. (Law) See {Action on the case}, under
      {Case}.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Offense; breach; infringement; transgression;
        misdemeanor; misdeed.
        [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Case \Case\, n. [F. cas, fr. L. casus, fr. cadere to fall, to
   happen. Cf. {Chance}.]
   1. Chance; accident; hap; opportunity. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            By aventure, or sort, or cas.         --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which befalls, comes, or happens; an event; an
      instance; a circumstance, or all the circumstances;
      condition; state of things; affair; as, a strange case; a
      case of injustice; the case of the Indian tribes.
      [1913 Webster]

            In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge.
                                                  --Deut. xxiv.
                                                  13.
      [1913 Webster]

            If the case of the man be so with his wife. --Matt.
                                                  xix. 10.
      [1913 Webster]

            And when a lady's in the case
            You know all other things give place. --Gay.
      [1913 Webster]

            You think this madness but a common case. --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]

            I am in case to justle a constable,   --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Med. & Surg.) A patient under treatment; an instance of
      sickness or injury; as, ten cases of fever; also, the
      history of a disease or injury.
      [1913 Webster]

            A proper remedy in hypochondriacal cases.
                                                  --Arbuthnot.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. (Law) The matters of fact or conditions involved in a
      suit, as distinguished from the questions of law; a suit
      or action at law; a cause.
      [1913 Webster]

            Let us consider the reason of the case, for nothing
            is law that is not reason.            --Sir John
                                                  Powell.
      [1913 Webster]

            Not one case in the reports of our courts. --Steele.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. (Gram.) One of the forms, or the inflections or changes of
      form, of a noun, pronoun, or adjective, which indicate its
      relation to other words, and in the aggregate constitute
      its declension; the relation which a noun or pronoun
      sustains to some other word.
      [1913 Webster]

            Case is properly a falling off from the nominative
            or first state of word; the name for which, however,
            is now, by extension of its signification, applied
            also to the nominative.               --J. W. Gibbs.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: Cases other than the nominative are oblique cases. Case
         endings are terminations by which certain cases are
         distinguished. In old English, as in Latin, nouns had
         several cases distinguished by case endings, but in
         modern English only that of the possessive case is
         retained.
         [1913 Webster]

   {Action on the case} (Law), according to the old
      classification (now obsolete), was an action for redress
      of wrongs or injuries to person or property not specially
      provided against by law, in which the whole cause of
      complaint was set out in the writ; -- called also
      {trespass on the case}, or simply {case}.

   {All a case}, a matter of indifference. [Obs.] "It is all a
      case to me." --L'Estrange.

   {Case at bar}. See under {Bar}, n.

   {Case divinity}, casuistry.

   {Case lawyer}, one versed in the reports of cases rather than
      in the science of the law.

   {Case stated} or {Case agreed on} (Law), a statement in
      writing of facts agreed on and submitted to the court for
      a decision of the legal points arising on them.

   {A hard case}, an abandoned or incorrigible person. [Colloq.]
      

   {In any case}, whatever may be the state of affairs; anyhow.
      

   {In case}, or {In case that}, if; supposing that; in the
      event or contingency; if it should happen that. "In case
      we are surprised, keep by me." --W. Irving.

   {In good case}, in good condition, health, or state of body.
      

   {To put a case}, to suppose a hypothetical or illustrative
      case.

   Syn: Situation, condition, state; circumstances; plight;
        predicament; occurrence; contingency; accident; event;
        conjuncture; cause; action; suit.
        [1913 Webster]
    
from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
TRESPASS ON THE CASE, practice. The technical name of an action, instituted 
for the recovery of damages caused by an injury unaccompanied with force, or 
where the damages sustained are only consequential. See Case, and 3 Bouv. 
Inst. n. 3482 to 3509. 
    

[email protected]